Cailyn IT Bubble 02 Mask

I’m loving the Cailyn range at the moment (although have just discovered my first fail from the range.. coming at the end of the post) and the Cailyn IT Bubble 02 Mask completely lived up to expectations. It’s billed as a foaming detox mask, but you need to banish any thoughts of stripping and drying your skin which can often come with detox products.

As you can see, it foams up beautifully into a soft, tactile arrangement that feels like liquid velvet on the skin. I think I was expecting a slightly harsher foam (I don’t believe for one second that the foam provides oxygen to the skin in any way that could be meaningful, but as a tactile experience, it’s beautiful) especially as it contains acids (lactic, glycolic and citric). The acids do a very decent exfoliating job – your skin will definitely come out feeling softer after using it and the fact that it’s oil free (using hyaluronic acid instead to hydrate) is pretty incredible given the moisturising and softening result. If you’re a face mask fan, I think you’ll love it. It’s £30 HERE.

So, here’s the no-no. I cannot remember ever washing a scrub off my face without doing the scrub action, but I did with this. The grains (sugar) are sharp and too big and while my skin is not at all sensitive, and I love a scrubby scrub, it was far too harsh for me. Which is odd, since it’s described as a ‘gentle’ scrub.

Unless you have rhino hide, I’d genuinely avoid this one – I just kept thinking of my poor, scratched face if I’d massaged it in. You can let the sugar melt a bit in your hand by rubbing them together with the product held within so the grains become finer, but that’s not obvious enough on the packaging and also is a bit of a faff. There are just better things out there doing the same thing in a gentler, less abrasive way.